Paul Ryan Did It Again!

In an earlier post (here), I pointed out that Paul Ryan, R-WI, was the premier philosopher of the right wing and to anoint presidential candidate Newt Gingrich with this title was a great disservice to Rep. Ryan and to my home state. And, to prove my point, in the video above Mr. Gingrich comes out in support of the new Wyden-Ryan Medicare Plan (here). The video and Rep. Ryan's intellectual achievements should make clear who is the real intellectual power behind the porcelain throne.

Not to pick at details here, but Rep. Ryan's original plan for Medicare (in his brilliant Roadmap for America's Future 2.0) was surely the best way to destroy the only existing form of single-payer health insurance in the U.S. and rid the country of any European or Canadian predispositions to socialized medicine. The original analysis convincingly argued that the real reason Medicare is in trouble is not because Seniors are getting something they don't deserve (a sly sop to the left wing) but because health care costs are rising faster than anyone would have thought back in 1965 when Medicare was founded (read the history here).

From this brutally honest analysis, Rep. Ryan concludes that the simple answer is to shift the costs back to Seniors who have plenty of slack left in their over-generous Social Security checks to cover the rising cost of health care. With one intellectual flourish, the problem was solved.

Unfortunately, the howls of protest from the AARP forced Rep. Ryan to bastardize the intellectual edifice of the Roadmap and convince (here's that power behind the throne again) Rep . Ron Wyden, D-OR, to endorse the bastard child (a softer version that allowed Seniors to stay in Single Payer and, foolishly, not subject their golden years to the whims of the health care market).

Honestly, can't anyone appreciate intellectual elegance? Simple solutions such as Single Payer where payments are capped and health care providers are required to take Medicare patients without discrimination, are simply too ugly when compared to the elegance of invisible-hand solutions. At least Rep. Ryan can take pride in his intellectual achievements.